Hakon
The ‘Sparrow’s Nest’ had drawn the short straw to be left on garrison duty in the Ironspine system, while the rest of the Legion readied to leave the system for an old abandoned world in the Old Ruins which had once fallen to the Skoll and lay abandoned ever since.
Intelligence gathered from the op against the starship in orbit, and the several away teams revealed the location of the pirates base. There had been several deaths in taking the starship, but most had surrendered without a fight, and the reward had given the 113th Legion more than they could have hopped for.
The White Claw Pirates as they called themselves had been uses trickery and misinformation on the forces of the System-lord Pamlea Lum for years. The Skoll, and other things which had made the System-lord so fearful was confirmed to be nothing more than a ruse from file after after.
The starship had had one simple mission, to remain in the system, and wait for the 113th Legion to finish it’s contract, and than inform their brothers and sisters in the White Claws, and launch small scale attacks, and help the locals rise up against the System-lord until the White Claw could launch their own massive attack into the system of Ironspine itself.
The files from the starship revealed that the White Claw gang had a formidable fleet for pirates. Nothing larger than Escort class Starships were in that fleet, but the intelligence told them to expect no less than forty starships from corvettes to escorts.
There were also several small scattered bases on the old world of Gell, but the minor world of Wenn remained uninhabited although teams made trips to scavenge parts from time to time, but it was no surprise that Wenn would be uninhabited. It might have hosted a population once before the Old Ruins, but with it’s inhabitable atmosphere it would make settling up life a task and a half.
“Finally some real action,” Frea said as the legion prepared to leave system, and orders and briefings began to task place.
It would take the legion almost a week to reach the Gell System, which laid on the border of Warta space inside the Old Ruins, and much closer to the Stargard System than to the Ironspine system, and Hakon had thought that it had been smart of the pirates. It would have been unlikely for the System-lord of Ironspine to search that far from home, and that close to Stargard, and that had worked.
“We drew planetary duty,” Hakon replied.
“Better than getting boarding action duty,” Thane Longreach replied. “It’s only to be a mess of a battle if that intelligence is correct.”
“They don’t stand much stand against the ships if the legion,” Ragnor replied.
“No, not the ‘Axe Tooth’, ‘Blade’, or ‘Thunderbolt’, but the support craft, and fighters, and not to mentiom what few local forces the general could pry from Lord Lum, breaching pods will be as likely to be hit by friendly fire as being lost to some captain fearing one of the ships is taking to long to capture.”
“Guess we will find out shortly, but we are just as likely to be hit hard by anti space weapons on Gell itself. They will have more warning of the attack than any ships in orbit, at least several minutes before the ‘Axe Tooth’ gets in range to launch forces and than rejoin the fight itself.”
Hakon nodded. It was a bold plan, but General Archer, and more important, the legion woudn’t allow themselves to be defeated by pirates.
